Friday, April 9, 2010

Old Times at Wrigley Field

As I have written before, in September of 1983, I attended most of the weekday home games of the Chicago Cubs. The crowds were thin. The tickets were cheap. My school day at DePaul ended at noon. The El ride was about 10 minutes. It was the perfect situation.You can tell a lot of things from the picture below. You can easily see the lack of a crowd. You can see empty sections down the right field line. From my seat behind home plate, you can see plenty of empty seats in nearby sections, too. Even the bleachers are spotty at best.The new high tech scoreboard addition is clearly visible, right below the historic scoreboard. Never mind that most banks have a bigger text sign that that. In 1983 at Wrigley, it was radical.You can also see some rooftops over the right field wall. This was before rooftop seating was an issue. There might have been a handful of rooftop viewers this day, but not enough to warrant concern from the Cubs organization.Also in the photo is Lori. Lori was an usher/security person at Wrigley. We talked a lot with the ushers because they had plenty of down time (without much of a crowd to control and usher). She also usually let me slide into much better seats than I deserved. I am pretty sure that she won't get in trouble with this revelation.By the time the '84 season came, a lot had changed. I had a job after school. The Cubs were on the way to winning the NL East. Harry Caray was becoming a Cubs icon.When I went to my first game in '84, I had nosebleed seats and sat there the whole game. The place was too packed for me to move to a better seat and Lori wasn't there to facilitate it.Lori, wherever you are...thanks for September of '83.